I shouldn’t be but I always am surprised when I point out a very common animal and people have never seen one or even heard of that kind of animal. This happened several times this spring while running my Common Loon photo workshops. I had a family of Woodchuck, a mother and five young, living on my property, and just about everyone taking the photo tours asked “what is that?”

The Woodchuck, also known as a Groundhog (Marmota monax) is a large marmot member in the squirrel family (Sciuridae). They are closely related to Marmots which are commonly found in the western half of the United States. The Woodchuck is found in the eastern half of the country, into Canada, reaching into Alaska. Unlike the Marmots of the west, which are high elevation creatures, the Woodchuck are found in low elevations, typically in forested regions.

Their etymology of their name is completely unrelated to wood or chucking. It comes from the Algonquian name for the animal “wuchak”. They are also sometimes called Whistle-pig, or Ground Pig. Both of these names come from the overall chubby appearance of these animals. Either way they are a type or kind of “ground squirrel”.

Woodchuck are considered the most solitary of the marmot species. They are a crucial habitat engineer which means the burrows they dig improves the soil health. They are a very intelligent critter, often forming complex social networks and lasting relationships with their young. They have complex communication skills, have well defined social behavior and work cooperatively when doing things such as digging burrows.

Male Woodchuck are larger than females. An adult male weights around 6 to 8 pounds while females are around 5 to 7 pounds. Both males and females put on consider amount of extra weight by the end of summer. This is extremely important because they are true hibernators. This means once they go down for hibernation in the fall, they don’t wake up until spring. If they don’t have enough body fat, or fuel, they can run out of energy before spring and will die during hibernation.

They put on all this weight on a vegetarian diet. They eat only plants including berries but Dandelions are at the top of their preferred food. An adult can eat around 1 pound of vegetation per day and in the spring most of that are dandelions. This is great news for anyone who doesn’t like dandelions growing in their yard.

Woodchuck excavate burrows underground with multi chambers. Some chambers are for sleeping, one for a nursey, one for waste, and another for hibernation. The length of the burrow isn’t very long, only about 6 to 10 feet, but one of the longest was 24 feet long. Often people mistakenly believe that their burrows will undermine a foundation. According to the Humane Society of the United States, you would need to have a lot of Woodchucks all burrowing at the same time, and same place. over a very long time to cause any significant damage. Abandoned burrows benefit many other species by providing shelter for rabbits, raccoons, skunks, otters, chipmunks and many more in addition to help turn over the soils. Based on my own experience with a mother Woodchuck and 5 young, they were adorable neighbors who only brought joy and life to my yard. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the U.S. to study and capture images of wildlife. He can be followed on www.Instagram.com, www.Facebook.com and www.Twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.NatureSmart.com.